October Bird Club

October’s Bird club discussions centered around the changing of the seasons. The Hummers have departed to be replaced by the juncos and white crown sparrows. We are watching for the west to east tundra swan migration to the Chesapeake Bay area. Bob discussed the WSO’s proposed changes in the seasonal bird counts to exclude common species and questioned whether this dilutes the importance of monitoring species decline. He also recommended a book Wisconsin Bird Life 1991 by Samuel d. Robbins Jr. as a possible at Christmas edition to the Neustadtr Nature Center library. One member brought data from the first 4 months of a DNR sound recorder phenology project on her property. There were over 120 species detected using the Birdnet identification system. Interesting project- looking forward to the next sound card download. And finally there was discussion on cleaning the bluebird houses but possibly relocating them to better suited habitat along another trail in the marsh. We’ll look into that and possibly adding more bird houses where appropriate. CEI’s fall trash pickup scheduled for after today’s meeting but will instead be done later in the month on a less windy day.